


Heart of Ice

by bfketh



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Historical, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Master and Apprentices, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 09:36:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8396671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bfketh/pseuds/bfketh
Summary: Yuuri has always had a gift for magic, but lacked access to a teacher. Then one day, he helps a traveling sorcerer from another land, and ends up becoming his apprentice. The only problem? It seems the sorcerer had already promised to teach someone else...





	

It was a beautiful spring day. The air was warm, the birds were singing, the sakura trees were in bloom, and the sound of a man screaming could be heard echoing through the forest.

...Wait, that last one wasn’t right.

Yuuri ran toward the sound, his geta clacking against the surface of the road. He didn’t have to go far before he saw the source of the screaming. A strange looking, foreign man was up in the branches of a tree growing near the bridge, and a kappa circled around the base. As Yuuri drew near, the creature jumped up, grasping for the man’s feet.

He yelped and something bright flashed from his fingers to disappear in a puff of smoke in the kappa’s face. “Stay back! I mean it!” The kappa hissed and drew away. With a sigh of relief the man looked up. His eyes widened when he saw Yuuri, and he made a little shooing motion with his hand as if warning him away.

Despite his apparent intentions, the kappa noticed the gesture and looked in Yuuri’s direction as well. It clacked its beak curiously and took a step toward him.

Before the creature could decide he was an easier snack than the man up in the tree, Yuuri folded his hands and bowed deeply until his back was parallel to the ground. “Good morning!”

A splashing sound followed by a distressed whistle let him know the kappa had, predictably, copied his gesture, and he straightened up to see the creature still frozen in a bow, all the water from the depression on its head having spilled onto the ground. Yuuri walked up to it and carefully poked it. The kappa didn’t budge.

The foreigner jumped down from the tree and walked around the kappa. “Amazing! What did you do to it? What  _ is _ it, anyway?” He had very blue eyes, Yuuri noticed.

“It’s called a kappa. If you can make them spill out all the water they carry on their heads, they can’t move.”

“Interesting. Does it hurt it?”

“Well, if the depression dries completely out they can die.”

The kappa whimpered then, and the man sighed and ran a hand back through his long, pale hair. “Nothing for it then. Come on give me hand.” He wrapped his arms around the kappa, and Yuuri quickly moved to help. They picked it up and started walking toward the river. “Don’t know why I’m bothering after it came at me like that. I wonder what it wanted.”

There was a rucksack hanging from the man’s back. Yuri could see a bit of green leaves poking out at the top. He nodded at it. “Do you have a cucumber in there?”

“Well, yes. I bought several vegetables at the last village I passed through.”

“Can I have it?”

The man gave him a curious look, but after they reached the bank of the river and threw the kappa back in, he dug through his bag and handed the cucumber over to Yuuri. By this point, the kappa’s head had reemerged from the water, and it was watching the exchange with large, hungry eyes.

Yuuri waved the vegetable at it. “Alright, I’ll give you this, but in return, you have to promise to leave people alone, okay?”

The kappa nodded vigorously. “Yes.”

Satisfied, Yuuri tossed the cucumber toward it. The creature caught it and clamped it tightly in its beak before disappearing into the depths of the river.

“So, it was just after the cucumber.”

“Yes. They’re a kappa’s second favorite food.”

“What’s its favorite food?”

Yuuri smiled. “Children.”

The man’s eyebrows lifted up toward his hairline, and then he looked back at the water with a slight frown. “Not a nice creature then.”

“Sometimes, no, it’s not.” Yuuri wore a brief frown of his own. The kappa wasn’t the first instance lately of water spirits creeping too near the village. It was probably time to perform another cleansing ritual. He’d have to talk to Minako-sensei when he got back home.

A cough broke him out of his musing, and he turned to see the foreigner looking at him expectantly. “Thank you for helping me, ah… I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced yet.” He flashed a bright smile.

“Oh, right! I’m Katsuki Yuuri.”

“Victor Nikiforov. Nice to meet you, Yuuri.”

“Nice to meet you, t- Ahhhhh!”

Victor quickly looked behind himself as Yuuri’s voice changed to a strangled shout. He turned back. “What? What’s wrong?”

“You’re Victor Nikiforov!”

He tilted his head, a confused smile curling up his lips. “Yes, I just told you that.”

“No, I mean, you wrote  _ On the Theory of Magic _ .” Yuuri knew that book well. Teachers were rare in the area, and he snapped up every book on magic from traveling merchants that he could afford. This particular one had turned out to be clear, concise, and easy to understand. It had even helped him puzzle out some of the more muddled bits from other manuscripts.

“Really?” Victor scratched the back of his head as his expression changed from confused to pleased. “Wow, I didn’t know anyone had translated it into Japanese.”

“Oh, uh, yes. It’s...one of my favorites.” Yuuri looked away as he admitted that. It was stupid to feel bashful in front of someone that had just been treed by a kappa, he tried to remind himself. Victor probably hadn’t even needed his help; he’d just been hesitating because he didn’t know what the creature was and he probably hadn’t wanted to hurt it if he didn’t have to.

His thought’s were interrupted as a hand clapped him on the back. “Well if you have any questions, you can ask me while we walk.” Victor started off down the road toward the village, pausing to look back over his shoulder. “Yuuri? You coming?”

“Oh! Yes!” Yuuri hurried to catch up to him, and they continued together as the sun started to descend behind them.

 

They made it to Hasetsu just as the sky was starting to turn orange, and Victor stopped to look around. “There’s no inn.”

“No, the town is too small. The tavern rents out space on the floor to travelers, though, and my family’s onsen has a couple extra rooms.”

Victor perked up at that. “I haven’t been to an onsen yet.”

Yuuri led the way, only stopping when the castle on the island in the bay came into view.

“Amazing! Do ninja live there?”

“No, it belongs to the daimyo. He’s hardly ever there, though. Maybe once a year?” Yuuri shrugged. “I think the rest of the time it’s empty except for a few servants.”

“That’s disappointing. ...Are you  _ sure _ he’s not training a secret clan of ninja in there?”

“I haven’t seen any.”

“Exactly!”

 

Once they made it to the onsen, Yuuri’s parents and the other guest predictably made a fuss over Victor. Travelers were fairly infrequent in Hasetsu, and foreigners nearly unheard of. They were at least polite about their curiosity, letting Victor go and relax in the hot springs in peace, but as soon as he was back in the common room for dinner, there was a crowd gathered around him and plying him with shochu as an excuse to get him talking about his travels.

Victor had left his home in Russia and come to Japan to study the native magic and creatures there. Soon, the residents were relaying everything they knew about the local spirits and superstitions.

“Of course, all the really powerful sorcerers are up in Edo serving the shogunate. Or in Kyoto, but the court magicians are all more flash than substance. But we’ve got our own magician here in Hasetsu, don’t we, Yuuri?” Yuuri’s friend, Takeshi, wrapped a meaty arm around Yuuri’s shoulders, jostling him.

“Um, well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Yuuri stammered. “I’m mostly self-taught, and I don’t really know that much…”

“Hey!” The woman sitting across from them slammed her cup down on the table. “Don’t be so modest, Yuuri! You’re wasting yourself here; I’ve told you a hundred times to go to Edo and find a proper teacher.”

“Minako-sensei, you’re drunk already, aren’t you?”

She ignored Yuuri and turned to Victor. “Honestly, he has the strongest potential I’ve ever seen. Yuuri.” Minako’s voice cracked like a whip, and Yuuri found his back straightening on instinct.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“There’s too many spirits sniffing around the edge of the village. We’re going to perform a cleansing ceremony tomorrow.”

Yuuri eyed the half-empty bottle in front of her. “Are you sure you’ll be up to it?”

Minako just grinned at him. “ _ You’re _ going to be performing a cleansing ceremony tomorrow.”

Yuuri deflated in resignation. “Yes, ma’am.”

 

Yuuri slid aside the shoji leading to one of the banquet rooms. He’d snuck away from the crowd earlier to help his sister, Mari, get it ready, and now a futon was set up in the corner, along with a small table, an oil lamp on a stand, and some cushions for sitting. He turned to Victor, who seemed to be looking around with interest. “I know it’s not much, but if you need anything just ask and we’ll get it.”

“It’s fine, but if you’re really worried, I could always sleep with you.”

Victor leaned in close, amusement dancing in his blue eyes, and Yuuri felt his face heating up. “Uh…” Naturally, his brain chose that moment to note that Victor had done an  _ awful _ job tying the yukata he’d been given after his bath, causing it to expose a good portion of his shoulder and chest. Yuuri wrenched his eyes away and hurried out the door. “Anyway, goodnight!” He quickly retreated to his own room and shut the door behind him.

 

The next day, Yuuri dressed in a pure white kimono and hakama before making his way to the village gates. The residents slowly trickled out as well, forming a large circle with Yuuri at the center of a cleared area. Mari helped Yuuri set up incense burners around the perimeter of the circle, and Minako sat down under a tree with a small hand-drum. Yuuri noticed Victor sit down next to her, and he quickly looked away. There was something slightly unnerving about the other man’s stare, although it wasn’t entirely unpleasant. It felt almost like the tight, warm feeling Yuuri would get on his skin when he’d been in the sun too long, as if warning that he was about to be burned. He wondered if it was because he was sensing Victor’s magical power.

He shook the thought away and stood in the center of the circle. Minako started drumming, and he closed his eyes, his breath syncing up to the slow, steady rhythm. Then the beat of the drum picked up, and Yuuri started to move. Slowly at first, his arms making graceful patterns in the air and then faster as the rhythm quickened, until Yuuri was moving in a spinning dance around the circle. He could feel the magic welling up inside him and flowing through his limbs. It settled thickly around the village, increasing as the dance continued, pulsing in time to his heartbeat.

The rhythm stopped at the same moment Yuuri did, his arms snapping out as if he was flinging something away. He was, in a sense, the magic around them breaking and spreading outward from the village. Any spirits in its path would be compelled to flee, hopefully settling far enough away to not be a nuisance.

Yuuri abruptly sat down as his legs turned to jelly under him. He noticed bemusedly that the grass in the circle was all bent away from him. He’d felt like the magic had been more responsive than usual. Perhaps it was because of Victor’s presence?

“Impressive.” Yuuri looked up to see Victor holding out a hand to him. Yuuri took it and let Victor help him to his feet. The skin of Victor’s palm was dry and warm. Once Yuuri was on his feet, he let go. “I’ve never seen an exorcism ceremony before. Good job, Yuuri.”

The last words were spoken softly, only for Yuuri to hear, and then Victor was gone with another smile.

 

Yuuri picked up the bamboo bucket and dumped it over his head to rinse off. The ceremony had exhausted him, and he was looking forward to a nice long soak in the hot spring and then going to bed early. He stepped outside.

“Yuuri!”

Victor was already in the hot spring, and as soon as Yuuri saw him, he stood up, water streaming off his skin and his hand extending dramatically toward Yuuri. Yuuri made the mistake of looking down before focusing his eyes back on Victor’s face.

“I’ve decided. In return for saving me yesterday, I’m going to make you my apprentice!” Victor winked, and blood rushed to Yuuri’s face. Why did all of this man’s actions seem calculated to fluster him?

Then Yuuri processed what Victor had said.

He took a deep breath.

“WHAT?!"


End file.
